1. Challenges and opportunities for Careers in the Arts

1. Challenges and opportunities for Careers in the Arts

What are some of the strategies used by people with disabilities seeking employment or self-employment in the arts? What are the barriers and challenges, and what ideas do you have for how the arts field can help provide career preparation and opportunity? These ideas can include your experiences with accommodations and accessibility, as well as how people with disabilities can work in the arts and have access to healthcare and other benefits.

When you are ready to share your ideas click the Submit New Idea Button on the right to join the conversation!

Grants, more often than not, require that the "greatest number of people" be impacted. For Deaf theatre companies, this means including some sort of accessible component, meaning auditory or readable text for hearing audiences.
This has the effect of discouraging deeper explorations into Deaf arts in the name of serving hearing audiences expectations and needs.
We need more funding that isn't tied to hearing audience
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Voting

My name is Sarah Muehlbauer. I am a 32 year old Crohn’s sufferer, writer, performer and artist, who wants to build community programming and career opportunities for the arts and disability cross-section. I come at this from both a healing background and fine-art emphasis.
My idea is to establish a multi-use space: One side that gives access and mentorship in crafts-based disciplines, to establish meditative skill sets
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Voting

Art is good for students to overcome a stress filled academic schedule but very few can call it a career goal. I can appreciate urban art, but really, I don't see often see art as a rural pursuit. Unless someone has taken the time to build a classic car and accomplished the magic it takes of folks to notice. But then again like urban art very few will master the ability to call this a career.

Voting

Question: What ideas do you have to increase the career preparation and employment of people with disabilities in the arts?
Access to $ is germane and yet there are so many other ways, activities that can take place (and needs development in our everyday workplace) that does not require or should not depend on $ as the sole penultimate requirement to help any citizen from accessing survival needs; 'learning,' development,
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Voting

When Mark Medoff wrote "Children of a Lesser God," he insisted that ANY production of this play must include deaf actors in deaf roles.
If you create good professional material (dance, plays, films) you can have some control over its production.
What is lacking in the story-rich, talented disabled community is confidence and opportunity. Teachers of play-writing such as myself can form or demand creating writing classes
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Voting

Would a Special Needs (Pooled) Trust be one way to protect public benefits a disabled person gets when they want to participate in a program? This is in answer to the problem with disabled artists losing benefits they rely on if they generate income or have assets over a certain limit.
Money/Income produced from sale of art by an artist might be used to fund the Trust.
I'm imaging this solution as more applicable in
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Voting

Imagine Art is a community where artists with and without disabilities gather for art making. Our space recruits a wide spectrum of people (with and without disabilities). We have artists with developmental disabilities that have access to Medicaid Waiver dollars for community based support. We have artists with mental illness that are seeking to serve others and access part time gigs in the arts. We have non-disabled
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Voting

As an art educator I see a big opportunity for individuals with disabilities to simply be included pre k-college in the arts curriculum that is available to all the students in a given building. Teachers willfully work with artist that are in their minds "gifted" artists but often won't take that extra time with students with disabilities.
When we take this time it can open up conversations about opportunities in the
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Voting

With certain requirements and under certain obligation, individuals with proven disability and/or low income, those should be allowed to claim a status of a nonprofit. This should be easily available, without government or lawyer fees. This way artists will not worry about losing their lifeline, medication and caregiver. Also, artists would be able to get the assistance from many corporations. For example, Godaddy
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Voting

Nationally our demographics are changing. We "baby boomers" are a dying breed. Take a look at what's happening with antique malls. The people who collected aren't around anymore. Art is going to become another victim of a younger generations values. Antiques were another form of commodity wealth. Attempting to provide employment in the arts will prove how out of touch the NEA has become. Let me give you another example.
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Voting

There is a kind of artwork, often the best, that is very difficult to market, due to the subject matter.
The particular "kind" of artwork I am thinking of is the art created from those in stress -- the mentally disturbed, the mentally disabled, the family member who has lost someone due to a mass shooting, first responders, soldiers with PTSD, an abused wife or child....the artwork comes from people who do not normally
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In addition, please share your ideas and comments for the following: resources that assist people with disabilities in overcoming barriers and challenges and provide career preparation and opportunities in the arts field, effective tools or resources for networking and job searching, and resources for educators to supplement their existing curricula in arts education programs to include disability arts representation and narratives.

Within your particular artistic discipline, please share your ideas for what resources or programs assist in addressing discipline-specific barriers or challenges, and what progress has been made in regards to artists, and/or cultural workers with disabilities. Are there resources in your specific artistic community that address the current discourse around disability? What organizations, opportunities, venues/spaces, and individuals working on disability issues within your specific artistic field should we know about? Please share resources that offer strategies for arts organizations and disability organizations to more effectively work together to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities in the arts.

Please share your ideas for resources or strategies for the following:

Guidance in considering and addressing disability/identity disclosure while working in the arts.

Assistance for employers, employees, and arts venue staff in a workspace/art space with access and inclusion.

Support or mentorship for disabled artists and cultural workers from additionally marginalized communities including communities of color, those for whom English is a second language, and those who are LGBTQ trans*.

Dialogue 1

What are some of the strategies used by people with disabilities seeking employment or self-employment in the arts? What are the barriers and challenges, and what ideas do you have for how the arts field can help provide career preparation and opportunity? These ideas can include your experiences with accommodations and accessibility, as well as how people with disabilities can work in the arts and have access to healthcare and other benefits.

When you are ready to share your ideas click the Submit New Idea Button on the right to join the conversation!

What ideas do you have for the arts field (arts organizations, arts service organizations, arts agencies, and arts funders) and the arts education field (schools, community arts education, conservatories, and universities) to ensure full inclusion for youth and adults seeking training in the arts field?

When you are ready to share your ideas click the Submit New Idea Button on the right to join the conversation!

What ideas do you have concerning disability disclosure while working in the arts? Has it helped or hindered your work? How can representation of disability and authenticity affect the employment outcomes for people with disabilities in the arts?

When you are ready to share your ideas click the Submit New Idea Button on the right to join the conversation!

What ideas do you have within your particular art form or your particular disability community? For example, what new opportunities have emerged for Deaf theater artists, for physically-integrated dance, or for filmmakers with disabilities, and how did they come about? What ideas do you have for how arts and disability organizations can work better together to increase opportunities?

When you are ready to share your ideas click the Submit New Idea Button on the right to join the conversation!